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We the Interwoven: An Anthology of Bicultural Iowa, Volume 2
UNTOLD STORIES FROM THE AMERICAN HEARTLAND OF LIVING BETWEEN TWO WORLDS
At six years old, Antonia Rivera crossed the border from Mexico with nothing but the doll in her hands. Ajla Dizdarević's family brought traditions across an ocean after leaving a home torn apart by the Bosnian War. Sarah Elgatian's grandmother played cards and spoke of a country her Armenian-American grandchild had never known. Hieu Pham couldn't relate to all of her mother's Vietnamese traditions, but when she became a mother herself, everything changed. Rana Hewezi grappled with tragedy in her Egyptian family's past and the power of a name in determining her fate. Anthony Mielke couldn't shake the felling that there was more to his birth story than he had been told, A member of the Meskwaki Nation, Dawson Davenport was born into a world that was not told in the history books.
How do we make our way in a society that looks nothing like the one our families once knew? How do we find a sense of belonging in a past and a place we've never been, or in a world that feels as if it's changing faster than we are?
These seven stories take us on a ride through the heart and the moral conscience as they explore how we find identity and make a future in an America that is still deciding its own.
"...In the quest of all people to find freedom, it is heartening that Antonia and others can find a home in Iowa, which has not forgotten its own immigrant story."—Art Cullen, Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and author of Storm Lake: A Chronicle of Change, Resilience, and Hope from a Heartland Newspaper
At six years old, Antonia Rivera crossed the border from Mexico with nothing but the doll in her hands. Ajla Dizdarević's family brought traditions across an ocean after leaving a home torn apart by the Bosnian War. Sarah Elgatian's grandmother played cards and spoke of a country her Armenian-American grandchild had never known. Hieu Pham couldn't relate to all of her mother's Vietnamese traditions, but when she became a mother herself, everything changed. Rana Hewezi grappled with tragedy in her Egyptian family's past and the power of a name in determining her fate. Anthony Mielke couldn't shake the felling that there was more to his birth story than he had been told, A member of the Meskwaki Nation, Dawson Davenport was born into a world that was not told in the history books.
How do we make our way in a society that looks nothing like the one our families once knew? How do we find a sense of belonging in a past and a place we've never been, or in a world that feels as if it's changing faster than we are?
These seven stories take us on a ride through the heart and the moral conscience as they explore how we find identity and make a future in an America that is still deciding its own.
"...In the quest of all people to find freedom, it is heartening that Antonia and others can find a home in Iowa, which has not forgotten its own immigrant story."—Art Cullen, Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and author of Storm Lake: A Chronicle of Change, Resilience, and Hope from a Heartland Newspaper
- GenresNonfiction
207 pages, Paperback
First published June 29, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 5, 2019
Actual rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Because there were more stories, averaging out this collection did give it a lower score. But We the Interwoven: An Anthology of Bicultural Iowa, Volume 2 is another strong collection of bicultural Iowans sharing their experiences and stories through personal memoirs that reflect, render, and remember.
Antonia Rivera:
"I, Antonia: An Undocumented Story"-4.5 out of 5 stars: This memoir was absolutely powerful. Through various titles and milestones in her life, Rivera captures her experience as a young girl before crossing the American border at six years old so her family can escape an abusive father. From there, her life as an undocumented immigrant begins, the secret-keeping and the depression and the protesting against political officials and embedding further into a country that has become resistant to the idea of providing for those who need it. Rivera's account is unflinching and unashamed, capturing each experience with the kind of hindsight and acceptance that is extraordinarily brave. She is an amazing woman who will never stop fighting, even if times get tough.
"The Life of an Undocumented Immigrant: A Timeline"-3 out of 5 stars: A year-by-year account of the legal ramifications of undocumented immigrants as Rivera continues to grow, hitting the important moments of her life along the way. Its main goal is to reinforce Rivera's story from her last entry, and it gets the job done.
"Dear Ciel"-3 out of 5 stars: A letter Rivera writes to her daughter that tells her she can accomplish anything, this is a sweet sentiment to close out Rivera's section.
Ajla Dizdarević
"A Drink to End All Drinks"-4 out of 5 stars: Dizdarević's dwelling on a brandy fever remedy and relating it back to the stereotype of drunk Bosnian-Americans and how food and drink are the last connections immigrants have to their roots under assimilation is told through vignettes with searing writing that doesn't hesitate to pack a punch. It does justice with its short format.
"Šta da Vam Kažem"-3 out of 5 stars: A poem addressing the disconnect of Bosnian-American immigrants arriving to America, which reinforces what was set up in "Drink" much like Rivera's collection. The English translation of the title is "What Can I Tell You," which is used for the Bosnian translation of the poem by Dizdarević's father, which is very touching.
Hieu Pham:
"What We Owe Our Mothers"-3.5 out of 5 stars: There was a witty sense of humor that sparked a couple of times throughout this piece that I thought would've been awesome to see expanded. But much of this story studied Pham's resentment of her mother and how that dissolved into appreciation as she grew older. But perhaps it was open all along. To have a resilient mother that snuck onto a fishing hot for seven days to leave Vietnam and led the way to America was something Pham took for granted until she gave birth to a child of her own. It was powerful and bittersweet.
Sarah Elgatian:
"A New Diaspora"-5 out of 5 stars: Centered on Elgatian's grandmother and culminating in a desire to learn more about her Armenian heritage, Elgatian's account of teasing being the guise for tough love, the ethnic ambiguity of her family, and the ultimate embracement of a community she yearns to know more about is heartbreaking, vivid, and beautifully rendered. Easily some of the most effortless figurative language I've ever read, and in a memoir like this, it matters so much.
Rana Hewezi:
"A Gateway to Jenna"-2.5 out of 5 stars: While I really enjoyed the grace of Hewezi's writing style, the vignette breaks left me confused as a reader. The theme of names having power resonated, especially with how they seemed to pop up later in the lives of Hewezi's late uncle and mother who has already passed, but I was lost trying to figure out what the statement of this work was.
Anthony Mielke:
"Stranger in My Own World"-5 out of 5 stars: This was another powerful memoir piece. Mielke's recount of his birth father's Puerto Rican heritage being suppressed by his mother remarrying and dismissing that culture for her son is horrifying and scary, and to see Mielke grapple with that shame rooted by deflection and denial only for his world to open up through his father sending him a message on Facebook shows the dangers of whitewashing and what happens when cultures outside of the stereotypical norm are erased to prevent reminiscing on past mistakes. It only leads to shame for the future generation.
Dawson Davenport:
"Black Thunder: A Meskwaki Story"-2 out of 5 stars: I'm disappointed that I didn't like this one more. While I felt for Davenport's account of his life, from growing up without the steady support of his parents but the breadth of love from his grandparents to life on the settlement to the history of the treatment of Native Americans in the United States and how that reflected in Davenport's behavior as he grew older, but I didn't feel any emotional connection to it personally. Davenport's memoir felt distant and disconnected, and as a result, I wasn't fully invested.
Because there were more stories, averaging out this collection did give it a lower score. But We the Interwoven: An Anthology of Bicultural Iowa, Volume 2 is another strong collection of bicultural Iowans sharing their experiences and stories through personal memoirs that reflect, render, and remember.
Antonia Rivera:
"I, Antonia: An Undocumented Story"-4.5 out of 5 stars: This memoir was absolutely powerful. Through various titles and milestones in her life, Rivera captures her experience as a young girl before crossing the American border at six years old so her family can escape an abusive father. From there, her life as an undocumented immigrant begins, the secret-keeping and the depression and the protesting against political officials and embedding further into a country that has become resistant to the idea of providing for those who need it. Rivera's account is unflinching and unashamed, capturing each experience with the kind of hindsight and acceptance that is extraordinarily brave. She is an amazing woman who will never stop fighting, even if times get tough.
"The Life of an Undocumented Immigrant: A Timeline"-3 out of 5 stars: A year-by-year account of the legal ramifications of undocumented immigrants as Rivera continues to grow, hitting the important moments of her life along the way. Its main goal is to reinforce Rivera's story from her last entry, and it gets the job done.
"Dear Ciel"-3 out of 5 stars: A letter Rivera writes to her daughter that tells her she can accomplish anything, this is a sweet sentiment to close out Rivera's section.
Ajla Dizdarević
"A Drink to End All Drinks"-4 out of 5 stars: Dizdarević's dwelling on a brandy fever remedy and relating it back to the stereotype of drunk Bosnian-Americans and how food and drink are the last connections immigrants have to their roots under assimilation is told through vignettes with searing writing that doesn't hesitate to pack a punch. It does justice with its short format.
"Šta da Vam Kažem"-3 out of 5 stars: A poem addressing the disconnect of Bosnian-American immigrants arriving to America, which reinforces what was set up in "Drink" much like Rivera's collection. The English translation of the title is "What Can I Tell You," which is used for the Bosnian translation of the poem by Dizdarević's father, which is very touching.
Hieu Pham:
"What We Owe Our Mothers"-3.5 out of 5 stars: There was a witty sense of humor that sparked a couple of times throughout this piece that I thought would've been awesome to see expanded. But much of this story studied Pham's resentment of her mother and how that dissolved into appreciation as she grew older. But perhaps it was open all along. To have a resilient mother that snuck onto a fishing hot for seven days to leave Vietnam and led the way to America was something Pham took for granted until she gave birth to a child of her own. It was powerful and bittersweet.
Sarah Elgatian:
"A New Diaspora"-5 out of 5 stars: Centered on Elgatian's grandmother and culminating in a desire to learn more about her Armenian heritage, Elgatian's account of teasing being the guise for tough love, the ethnic ambiguity of her family, and the ultimate embracement of a community she yearns to know more about is heartbreaking, vivid, and beautifully rendered. Easily some of the most effortless figurative language I've ever read, and in a memoir like this, it matters so much.
Rana Hewezi:
"A Gateway to Jenna"-2.5 out of 5 stars: While I really enjoyed the grace of Hewezi's writing style, the vignette breaks left me confused as a reader. The theme of names having power resonated, especially with how they seemed to pop up later in the lives of Hewezi's late uncle and mother who has already passed, but I was lost trying to figure out what the statement of this work was.
Anthony Mielke:
"Stranger in My Own World"-5 out of 5 stars: This was another powerful memoir piece. Mielke's recount of his birth father's Puerto Rican heritage being suppressed by his mother remarrying and dismissing that culture for her son is horrifying and scary, and to see Mielke grapple with that shame rooted by deflection and denial only for his world to open up through his father sending him a message on Facebook shows the dangers of whitewashing and what happens when cultures outside of the stereotypical norm are erased to prevent reminiscing on past mistakes. It only leads to shame for the future generation.
Dawson Davenport:
"Black Thunder: A Meskwaki Story"-2 out of 5 stars: I'm disappointed that I didn't like this one more. While I felt for Davenport's account of his life, from growing up without the steady support of his parents but the breadth of love from his grandparents to life on the settlement to the history of the treatment of Native Americans in the United States and how that reflected in Davenport's behavior as he grew older, but I didn't feel any emotional connection to it personally. Davenport's memoir felt distant and disconnected, and as a result, I wasn't fully invested.
January 1, 2020
What I love most about this anthology is that it showcases a vibrant multiculturalism in a place most would least expect to find it: Iowa. Although the seven writers wrestle with loss and alienation, their stories—and the collection as a whole—fill me with hope. The authors demonstrate creativity and resilience as they forge their identities and find hopeful ways of living, as editor Andrea Wilson puts it, “between two worlds.”
They share artist statements, life-narratives, lyric essays, chronologies, and poems. Most pieces explore fraught family relationships, especially between immigrant parents and their children. All the writings resist assimilation and celebrate the power of truth-telling and story.
The first and longest piece, by Antonia Rivera, is especially timely. At age six, she and her mother entered the U.S. from Mexico as they fled Rivera’s dangerously violent father. Now, at 37 years old, Rivera is one of the oldest DREAMERS, and if the DREAM Act ever passes, she will likely be too old to qualify. Her writing helped me viscerally experience the terror and despair of undocumented Americans, and it strengthened my belief that our immigration system needs to be reformed and made more humane.
They share artist statements, life-narratives, lyric essays, chronologies, and poems. Most pieces explore fraught family relationships, especially between immigrant parents and their children. All the writings resist assimilation and celebrate the power of truth-telling and story.
The first and longest piece, by Antonia Rivera, is especially timely. At age six, she and her mother entered the U.S. from Mexico as they fled Rivera’s dangerously violent father. Now, at 37 years old, Rivera is one of the oldest DREAMERS, and if the DREAM Act ever passes, she will likely be too old to qualify. Her writing helped me viscerally experience the terror and despair of undocumented Americans, and it strengthened my belief that our immigration system needs to be reformed and made more humane.
December 4, 2019
This book is unlike anything I have had the chance to read before. It beautifully weaves together short stories of immigrants of different backgrounds. It really opened up my eyes to the different struggles immigrants go through when they come to the United States. I look forward to reading more editions of We the Interwoven in the future!
December 5, 2019
This wonderfully outlined book is a prove that the people who take a chance to come to America not only bring a new flavor to American society, they also bring new, fresh voices to great American literature. The must read stories that are collected in this beautifully designed book leave their readers with a distinct smell of faraway lands, unexpected taste of diverse life experiences, and bare-brave sounds of multilingual storytellers.
December 4, 2019
We the Interwoven is a great book for anyone who wants to explore stories of immigrants who have come the Iowa. The stories were so touching and I really liked that they also included translations of the stories into the author’s native language.
December 18, 2020
We the Interwoven volumes are important books. The USA is a melting pot of different people from diverse cultures and backgrounds. The stories are true, beautifully written, and intensely honest.
June 24, 2023
The struggles immigrants have when coming here.
January 1, 2020
I read this book on the recommendation of a student, and I'm glad I did! I got to know seven different writers from seven different cultural backgrounds. Each writer is an individual, as well as a representative of their own culture. This is what I liked best about the book--each writer speaks for him- or herself, choosing what to focus on and how to portray themselves. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the immigrant experience or the human experience in general.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews